David Cage: Game creators should write stories about themselves – not space marines

This may come as a something of a shock to you, but Heavy Rain creator David Cage is a bit full of himself.

Perhaps, however, that’s not such a bad thing.

“I hear many developers in the US saying the same thing – ‘look, I’m 40, I’m fed up of writing games where you shoot at everyone. It was fun when I was twenty but now I want to do something else. I don’t watch the same movies as I did when I was 20, I don’t listen to the same music, but I’m still making the same games!’ Developers are fed up – they want to talk about their families, politics, whatever – why not in a game? Why not?! There is no reason,” Cage told The Guardian.

“[Heavy Rain] is the one I was dreaming of. I worked so hard on the story, and it’s the first I ever wrote that was based on something personal. It was not about space marines fighting aliens, it was about my relationship with my first son and how he changed my life – and also about how loving someone without expecting anything in return was something totally new.”

That, Cage argued, is where videogame stories should come from: the heart – and not some marketing firm’s collective brain.

“There should be more people trying this,” he said. “Don’t write about being a rookie soldier in WWII, because you don’t have a clue what that’s like. Talk about yourself, your life, your emotions, the people around you, what you like, what you hate – this is how the industry will make a huge step forwards. I’m fed up with space marines.”

Say what you will about Heavy Rain, but damn. Do you have any envelopes that need pushing, because – yeah – we’ve got a guy. Now if only we just had more.